Materials development

J. 1. Duffy, "Refractory Materials, Developments Siace 1977," Chemical Technology Keview, No. 178, Noyes Data Corp., Park Ridge, N.J., 1980. 

The SiC whisker-reinforced alumina composite, a model for engineered materials, has opened new vistas for tool material development. Whereas SiC whisker-reinforced alumina is used extensively for the machining of nickel-base superaHoys, SiC whiskers react chemically with steel, causing rapid wear on the rake face. Attempts are underway to replace SiC whiskers with less reactive whiskers such as TiC or TiN. 

SiC whisker-reinforced alumina is a major advance in tool material development, as it provides a means to increase the fracture toughness of the material via the composite material approach. It is entirely possible that in the next century many new whiskers of refractory, hard materials will be made... 

Driven by these impending limits to blade cooling emphasis has switched back to materials development. Because of the saturation in the development of nickel alloys, more revolutionary approaches are being explored. 

Any major materials development programme, such as that on the eutectic superalloys, can only be undertaken if a successful outcome would be cost effective. As Fig. 20.10 shows, the costs of development can be colossal. Even before a new material is out of the laboratory, 5 to 10 million pounds (8 to 15 million dollars) can have been spent, and failure in an engine test can be expensive. Because the performance of a new alloy cannot finally be verified until it has been extensively flight-tested, at each stage of development risk decisions have to be taken whether to press ahead, or cut losses and abandon the programme. 

The sputtering process is frequendy used in both the processing (e.g., ion etching) and characterization of materials. Many materials develop nonuniformities, such as cones and ridges, under ion bombardment. Polycrystalline materials, in particular, have grains and grain boundaries that can sputter at different rates. Impurities can also influence the formation of surface topography. ... 

The discovery and development of polypropylene, the one genuinely new large tonnage thermoplastics material developed since World War II, forms part of what is arguably the most important episode in the history of polymer science. For many years it had been recognised that natural polymers were far more regular in their structure than synthetic polymers. Whilst there had been some improvement in controlling molecular architecture, the man-made materials, relative to the natural materials, were structurally crude. 

Some 20 years after the pressure for the creation of the new interdisciplinary laboratories was first felt, one of the academics who became involved very early on. Prof. Rustum Roy of Pennsylvania State University, wrote eloquently about the underlying ideal of interdisciplinarity (Roy 1977). He also emphasised the supportive role played by some influential industrial scientists in that creation, notably Dr. Guy Suits of GE, whom we have already encountered, and Dr. William Baker of Bell Laboratories who was a major force in pushing for interdisciplinary materials research in industry and academe alike. A magisterial survey by Baker (1967), under the title Solid State Science and Materials Development, indicates the breadth and scope of his scientific interests. 

It should be noted that the dispersion model for radioactive material developed in WASH-1400 for reactor sites as a class cannot be applied to individual sites without significant refinement and sensitivity tests,... 

This work was supported by JSPS Grant for "Advanced High Temperature Materials - Development of Practicable High Temperature Intermetallics" and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No.07650818, No.08242216 and No.07405031) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan, and in part by the NEDO International Research Grant for the Intermetallics Team and the research grant from R D Institute of Metals and Composites for Future Industries. 

Figure 3 shows the thermal performance evolution of the steam cycle as a function of material development and cycle improvements, starting in 1915. By the early 1920s, regenerative feedheating was well estab-... 

Manufacturers and specialist materials development associations publish extensive corrosion data in the form of monographs, and this form of presentation is also used in national standards. The most recent comprehensive text in this category is perhaps the publication by the Zinc Development Association . The work is important in that the section on chemicals also deals with common, though complex, chemical formulations, e.g. Are-extinguisher fluids, soaps and syndets, agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilisers. This publication also demonstrates the mammoth task of recording all the available data for just one material. A comparable book for mild steel would probably be much larger, whereas for many other materials the information has not yet been determined. Thus at best, only very incomplete data are available in this form. 

The material development associations and manufacturers have, by their own research and development, accumulated a great deal of information about their own product and this is transmitted directly to potential users of their materials. 

J E AnlUl, PhD, BSc Head, Chemical Metallurgy Group, Materials Development Division, UKAEA, Harwell... 

De Van, J. H. and Jansen, D, H., Fuels and Materials Development Program Quart. Progr. Rept., Sept. 30 (1968) ORNL-4350, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, p91 Bonilla, C. F., in Reactor Handbook, Vol. IV (ed. S. McLain), Interscience, New York, 107 (1964)... 

G. Pistoia (Ed.), Lithium Batteries, New Materials, Developments and Perspectives Industrial Chemistry Library, Volume 5, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1994. 

CAMPUS, the plastics database CAMPUS is an internationally known database software for plastic materials, developed by close cooperation with leading plastics producing companies. It is available worldwide from leading material suppliers. More than 50 plastics producers are participants of CAMPUS. Information about the latest list of participants and distribution addresses can be found at the CAMPUS homepage http //www.CAMPUSplastics.com/. This web site also includes extensive information about the data content of CAMPUS and links to the participants web sites. It is important to emphasize that only CAMPUS participants distribute CAMPUS diskettes. Each plastic producer distributes his own diskette to his customers without charge. 

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